Southern California -- this just in

Dorner manhunt: Search resumes in Big Bear mountains

February 9, 2013 | 8:26
am

As the ground search resumed Saturday in Bear Bear for a disgruntled
ex-cop suspected of hunting down LAPD officials and their families, authorities pledged to continue until they find Christopher Jordan Dorner.

Dorner,
a 33-year-old former Los Angeles police officer, is suspected of killing three
people and wounding two.

Officials
with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said armored
personnel carriers would be used to transport search teams into mountain areas, where they will
comb the forest. With no sightings so far of Dorner, officials canceled a press briefing
scheduled for noon Saturday.

The trail has gone cold since Dorner's Nissan Titan pickup was found
Thursday morning engulfed in flames on a U.S. Forest Service dirt road between
the Bear Mountain and Snow Summit ski resorts.

But Saturday could offer the
clearest weather in days, and perhaps the best chance to find the alleged
killer.

The
mountain air was a crisp 19 degrees Saturday morning, with a thick blanket of
snow covering the landscape. The National Weather Service said temperatures
will climb to 31 degrees with little to no wind, mostly clear skies and no
snow, preserving any tracks left overnight. A Pacific storm is expected to have fully cleared by Sunday.

Saturday
morning, dozens of San Bernardino County SWAT officers were filling their
bellies at the Best Western in Big Bear Lake, their vehicles idling and warming
up. Later they would hit the road for their third day in the wilderness.

The day before, ski-masked SWAT teams went door-to-door checking hundreds of
homes and shuttered cabins, as other authorities fanned out on foot, slogging
through fresh snow with search dogs. The teams combed backcountry and checked
every shed, trash bin and barrel where the fugitive could hide. Dorner is
described as African American, 6 feet tall and weighing 270 pounds.

No one has seen Dorner or his tracks since Thursday and local
residents are beginning to believe he got out of town before police locked down
the area. Still some remain at the ready.

Roger Curtis, a retired carpenter who lives in Big Bear, said he was
watching the manhunt on TV when a car alarm sounded. "I got the guns and
loaded them," he said.

Police say that Dorner has killed three people and injured others in a
campaign to take revenge on those he blamed for his dismissal from the LAPD four years ago.
Investigators are scrutinizing a conspiracy-laden manifesto published on what they believe was Dorner's Facebook page. The screed threatened
"unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" against police officers and
their families, saying that Dorner has no choice but to kill to reclaim his damaged
reputation.

Police accuse him of killing the daughter of a retired LAPD captain and her
fiance, who were found shot to death Sunday in a car in Irvine. While on the
run, police said, Dorner shot three police officers, one fatally, in Riverside
County.

With warnings on radio and TV that an armed and deadly fugitive remained at
large, police spent hours chasing down bogus leads and erroneous sightings.

Dorner was driving a white Lexus near Barstow. He was spotted entering the county jail in downtown Los Angeles. He was holed up in a hotel in San Diego or in a park in Norco or at a home next to the Barona
Indian Reservation in San Diego County. None of those tips checked out, and
authorities are considering false reporting charges against one person who was
more prankster than tipster.

"When you're dealing with a case that's getting this amount of press
coverage, you're going to get your share of bad information," said Laura
Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI, whose agents searched Dorner's home in Las
Vegas and are investigating a package that CNN received, apparently from
Dorner, that made various threats. Federal and local authorities also searched
the home of his mother, Nancy Dorner, in La Palma, carrying out bags of
potential evidence.

Meanwhile on Redbeam Avenue in Torrance, residents were still trying to make
sense of the bullet holes police had left behind.

In their pursuit of Dorner, at least seven police officers
opened fire on what turned out to be a mother and daughter delivering
newspapers down a quiet residential street, law enforcement sources told The
Times.

"How do you mistake two Hispanic women, one who is 71, for a large
black male?" said Richard Goo, 62, who counted five bullet holes in the
entryway to his house.

In an interview with The Times on Friday, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said Margie Carranza,
47, and her mother, Emma Hernandez, 71, were the victims of "a tragic
misinterpretation" by officers working under "incredible
tension," he said.

Beck and others stressed that the investigation into the shooting is in its
infancy. They declined to say how many officers were involved, what kind of
weapons they used, how many bullets were fired and, perhaps most important,
what kind of verbal warnings — if any — were given to the women before the
shooting began.

Glen T. Jonas, the attorney representing the women, said the police officers
gave "no commands, no instructions and no opportunity to surrender"
before opening fire. Jonas estimated that the officers fired between 20 and 30
rounds. Photographs of the back of the truck showed at least two dozen bullet
holes. Neighbors, however, suggested there were more shots fired.

Kathy Merkosky, 53, was outside her stucco home pointing out the six bullet
holes in the bumper and grill of her silver Acura MD-X. She knew her truck was
damaged when she spotted it on television and "saw fluid flowing into the
street."

Her Ford Focus was hit as well — a bullet shattered the windshield and
another flattened a front tire.

"I've never heard gunfire on my street," Merkosky said. "Or
ever in my life.... I hope they catch the guy so all this craziness will
end."